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I have recently come across a story that moved me deeply, concerning a Royal Marine who lost his legs serving in Afghanistan. This brave young soul has a loving and supportive family who wish to purpose build a bungalow for him, on their own land, so he can be close to them but retain his independance as much as possible. Unfortunately, this has run afoul of local planning regulations and permission has been denied for the build.

A petition to our government has been raised to appeal for the overturning of this ruling, and can be accessed on the official No.10 website. This petition is only open to UK citizens and residents, sadly, but it is here I would like to ask my question.

If I were to post the text I have summarised above, along with a link to the petition and the facebook group from which I learned this story, in the OFF-TOPIC forum, would I be running afoul of any forum rules ?

I don't think I would be breaking any rules, but wanted to ask just to be sure, as I know that dakka has a considerable number of UK members and would like to get this story out there among my fellow Brit gamers.

Should it help, the petition is here : http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Mne-Townsend/

and the facebook group (I'm assuming you're members of fb) here :http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=58643645907 under the title of "Support For Joe To Get His Bungalow"

Thank you for your attention on this.
Reaper6.

Post Move Edit :
The above is the post I submitted to the Nuts & Bolts forum for the consideration of the site's powers that be. I haven't edited it much because I feel it pretty much speaks for itself.

My purpose is to ask for the support of my fellow countrymen ( ignore the flag, I'm in Wiltshire UK ). Please, people, sign the petition. Those of you on facebook, please join the group.

This young man was wounded on duty for his country, and if a petty minded local authority won't do the right thing, perhaps the strength of the British Public can.

Nope that's fine I'll move this into the offtopic forum and you can edit the original post to update the title. What was the official reason the planning was rejected?

thanks legoburner, thought it best to check first.

The article I read stated as follows :

" Joe’s bungalow would be ‘intrusive’, planners said. And anyway, his case was not exceptional enough for them to waive strict laws and allow the bungalow to be built."

Typically lame answer really, even more so when you consider that pretty much everyone resident in the area seems to be in favour of the build, from what I've been reading.

At the moment, the petition holds 8,197 signatures, but the higher we can get it, the more the chance of success improves.

Anyone interested in the story can find an article here :http://www.bexhillobserver.net/eastbourne-news/Huge-support-for-injured-Marine.4953296.jp


(Edited for updated signature count and inclusion of local press article)

I have just read that the PM has indeed overturned the local authority decision preventing the construction of the bungalow.

In the short space of time since I posted the original request, the number of names of the petition jumped to 10,477.

If any of Dakka's UK members got involved, then thank you all. It's nice to see Downing Street actually listening for once.

Good to hear that the brave soul got the permission in the end. I feel sorry for our armed forces seeing how much crap they have to put up with.

I have a heart for our services, and know many ex servicemen. So I really hate to have to say this but I dont like that planning permission is overruled on the basis of who is requesting the planning, and to whome.

Sorry guys, planning laws are there for a purpose and should not be subject to political forces. I even have some sympathy for the council because the merits of the applicant should not be a factor. However the support for the bungalow proposal from surrounding residents should also have been factored and a decision that it was intrusive was incorrect as a result. If the neighbours dont mind, it is de facto not intrusive. it is obvious the Council muppets didnt do their job properly, but that is what appeals are for.

However then it became political and went above planners heads with this petition to Downing street. It wasnt right when Donald Trump played the system, its not right here. Though I have far more sympathy for the latter case. In both cases it became purely a political outcome, and planning merits are rapidly being sidelined and eroded. Until recently politicians could not have overruled planning applications. Since Trump this is happening all the time and for the wrong reasons.

Its not like Gordon Brown gives a gak about this man anyway, but he likes to pretend he cares about veterans when they are in the public eye. I dont beleive this was dealt with justly, not knowing what I know. There is case a friend is dealing with a soldier who lost his legs to a mine, to get only three thousand pounds compensation and be told by the benefits agency he was not entitled to income support until it was spent. I have heard of faceless civil servants handing evictions from quarters to army widows within hours of the base chaplain giving the bad news of a husbands death in action, and no widows dont get any priority in the social housing queue. This is the current way veterans and their families are dealt with and is the reality of how much the government really cares.

It is nice this man got a home, but it would have been better if the Council were persuaded to change their mind within the proper appeals process rather than it became a tool of spin for Downing street. At least on this occassion the political interference has a positive outcome, but I dont buy the outcome as good news. Council planners often get it wrong, but there is some measure of security by having a planning system, as the planning system becomes increasingly subject to the needs of demagogues that nation as a whole suffers.

Orlanth: Couldn't have put it better myself.

I don't like to see the PM intervening in individual cases, regardless of how 'deserving' they appear to be. It just smacks of cheap point scoring.

It also sets the dangerous precedent of people thinking that they get the rules changed for them if they threaten to kick up enough of a stink.

Incidentally does anyone know exactly why the original application was rejected? Quite frankly there may well have been a very good reason he wasn't allowed to go ahead that was simply not mentioned during the media frothing.